Wearable Apparatus

ABSTRACT

Disclosed embodiments include a multi-function wearable apparatus comprising (a) a sensor module including a plurality of low power solid state kinematics sensors,(b) a microprocessor module comprising a low power microcontroller configured for device control, device status, and device communication; (c) a data storage module comprising a solid state local storage medium, said data storage module configured for sampling and storage of kinematics data; (d) a wireless communication module comprising a low power bidirectional transceiver wherein said wireless communication module is configured for communicating and synchronizing sampling time instances of said sensor module with signals from a second apparatus; and (e) a power module comprising a battery and an energy charging regulator. According to one embodiment, the wearable apparatus is a watch capable of quantifying human movement.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/632,778 filed on 2009 Dec. 7 which claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application No. 61/120,485 filed on 2008 Dec. 7 by thepresent inventors, and are hereby incorporated by reference in theirentirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to the wearable devices. Specifically, it relatesto multi-function wearable devices capable of quantifying humanmovement.

BACKGROUND

State of the art smart watches and movement disorder monitors employinertial sensors, such as accelerometers and gyroscopes, to measureposition, velocity and acceleration of the subject's limbs and trunk.Current devices for quantifying human movement fall into two classes,namely activity monitors and inertial monitors.

Activity monitors, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,353,375, collect lowfrequency and low resolution samples of the subject's gross activity fordays to weeks at a time. These monitors are usually small, unobtrusivedevices resembling watches or brooches which are worn by the subject forlong periods of time such as days or weeks outside of the clinicalsetting. They measure movement using low quality inertial sensors at lowsampling frequencies, and usually measure only a few degrees of freedomof motion instead of all six possible degrees of freedom of motion. Thelow quality measurements are stored in data storage on-board the devicewhich is later downloaded and analyzed. While they are useful forrecording the gross activity levels of the subject, and they may becomfortable and unobtrusive enough to be worn by the subject for longsperiods of time, they are only useful in measuring non-subtle symptomsof movement disorders such as activity versus rest cycles. Subtlesymptoms, such as symptom onset and decline, or non-obvious symptomssuch as bradykinesia, can not be measured by these devices. Thesedevices, also known as actigraphers, typically measure movement countsper minute which make even simple determinations such as determining thewake-up time challenging. Consequently, actigraphers are inappropriatefor continuous ambulatory monitoring of movement disorders such as inParkinson's disease or other applications what required precisequantification of human movement.

Inertial monitors, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,293,879, collect highfrequency, high resolution samples of the subject's movements for shortperiods of time. These devices are larger and more obtrusive, resemblingsmall boxes which are worn by the subject for short periods of time suchas hours, or at most, a day, and usually in clinical settings. Theymeasure movement using high quality inertial sensors, and usuallyinclude all six degrees of freedom of motion (three linear axes andthree rotational axes). Inertial monitors may store the inertialmeasurements in the device for later analysis, or they may use telemetryradios to wirelessly transmit the measurements in real-time to a nearbycomputer or recording device. These devices are useful for measuring allsymptoms of movement disorders, but because of their larger, obtrusivesize and short operational times, are not useful for measuring symptomsoutside of clinical settings or for long periods of time.

Movement disorder monitoring can be enhanced by monitoring multiplelocations on a subject at the same time. Current systems either do notsynchronize their measurements, or require wires to synchronizesampling. Additionally, current movement disorder monitoring devicesalso lack aiding sensors, such as absolute measures of position.

Movement monitoring devices and systems that overcome challenges ofphysical size, power consumption, and wireless synchronization arecurrently unavailable and have significant potential in numerousapplications including clinical practice, research requiringquantification of human movement, and numerous health and sports relatedapplications. Currently, the most common and accurate method of trackingmovement is based on optical motion analysis systems. However, thesesystems are expensive, can only measure movements in a restrictedlaboratory space, and cannot be used to observe patients at home.

Current inertial monitoring systems can be divided into threecategories: computer-tethered, unit-tethered, and untethered.Computer-tethered devices connect the sensor directly to a computer. Oneof the best systems in this category is MotionNode (GLI Interactive LLC,Seattle). These systems are not practical for home or ambulatorysettings. Unit-tethered systems connect the sensors to a centralrecording unit that is typically worn around the waist. This unittypically houses the memory, batteries, and wireless communicationscircuits. Currently, these systems are the most widely available and arethe most common in previous studies. One of the best systems in thiscategory is the Xbus kit (Xsens, Netherlands). This system includes upto five sensors, each with high-performance, triaxial accelerometers,gyroscopes, and magnetometers. The system can operate continuously andwirelessly stream data via Bluetooth to a laptop for over 3 h atdistances up to 100 m. However the system is too cumbersome anddifficult to use due to the wires connecting the sensors and centralrecording unit, the battery life is too short, and the interconnectingwires may be hazardous during normal daily activities. The typicaluntethered system combines the batteries, memory, and sensors in singlestand-alone units. The only wireless untethered systems reported in theliterature are “activity monitors,” which measure the coarse degree ofactivity at intervals of 1-60 s, typically with a wrist-worn device thatcontains a single-axis accelerometer. These devices are sometimes calledactigraphs or actometers. Most of these devices only report activitycounts, which are a measure of how frequently the acceleration exceeds athreshold. Some custom activity monitors directly compute specificmetrics of motor impairment, such as tremor. A few studies have shownthat activity monitors worn over 5-10 days could detect on/offfluctuations, decreased activity from hypokinesia, and increasedactivity associated with dyskinesia. However, typical activity monitorscannot distinguish between motor activity caused by voluntary movement,tremor, or dyskinesia. They do not have sufficient bandwidth, memory, orsensors for precise monitoring of motor impairment in PD. They alsocannot distinguish between periods of hypokinesia and naps.Additionally, the cannot quantify precise human movement as required inmost applications involving activity recognition and kinematics.

Recently, Cleveland Medical Devices (Cleveland, Ohio) introduced twountethered systems, the KinetiSense and Kinesia devices. These systemsinclude triaxial accelerometers and gyroscopes with bandwidths of 0-15Hz, but lack magnetometers. Although large, the central recording unitscould to be worn on the wrist. The sensor and recording unit can beconnected to form a single unit. This devices can record datacontinuously and store it on an on-board memory for up to 12 h.However, 1) the due to their size it is difficult for several of thesedevices to be used at the same time (e.g. wrist, ankle, waits, trunk),2) the storage capability is limited to a single day and consequently itis difficult to conduct multiple day studies, and 3) the devices are notsynchronized.

Movement monitoring devices and systems that overcome the challengesof 1) physical size (volume), 2) power consumption, 3) wirelesssynchronization, 4) wireless connectivity, 5) automatic calibration, and6) noise floor; are currently unavailable and have significant potentialin numerous applications including clinical practice and research.Finally, the limited solutions currently available are device-centricand do not include a complete platform to perform collection,monitoring, uploading, analysis, and reporting.

SUMMARY

Disclosed embodiments include a wearable apparatus comprising of (a) asensor module comprising solid state kinematics sensors; (b) a processormodule configured for device control, device status, and devicecommunication; (c) a data storage module comprising a solid state localstorage medium; (d) a wireless communication module comprising atransceiver and an integrated antenna; and (e) a power and dockingmodule comprising a battery, an energy charging regulator circuit, andoptionally a docking connector. According to one embodiment, thewearable apparatus is a watch.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Disclosed embodiments are illustrated by way of example, and not by wayof limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram representing the basic components ofan embodiment of the general system to support a multi-function wearableapparatus.

FIG. 2 illustrates a detailed diagram of the internal components andinterconnections of an illustrative embodiment of the wearableapparatus.

FIGS. 3-25 show illustrative embodiments of the wearable apparatus.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A. System Components

According to one embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1 the system forcontinuous ambulatory monitoring of human movement comprises: one ormore wearable devices 100, one or more docking stations 102 connected toa plurality of access points, one or more data servers 104, and aplurality of statistical and signal processing analysis methods 106 toprocess the movement data collected by the wearable devices and generatea plurality movement metrics.

B. Wearable Devices: Movement Monitors

According to one embodiment the wearable movement monitor (also referredto as wearable apparatus, wearable device, or wearable sensor) 100 is alightweight device (<100 g) comprising (a) a sensor module comprising aplurality of low power (<50 mW) solid state and micro-electromechanicalsystems kinematics sensors; (b) a microprocessor module comprising a lowpower (<50 mW) microcontroller configured for device control, devicestatus, and device communication; (c) a data storage module comprising asolid state local storage medium; (d) a wireless communication modulecomprising a low power (<50 mW) surface mount transceiver and anintegrated antenna; and (e) a power and docking module comprising abattery, an energy charging regulator circuit, and a docking connector.In one embodiment, and without limitation, the micro-electromechanicalsystems kinematics sensors include a plurality of solid-state, surfacemount, low power, low noise inertial sensors including a plurality ofaccelerometers and gyroscopes, as well as a solid-state, surface mount,low power, low noise, Gigantic Magneto-Resistance (GMR) magnetometers.In a particular embodiment, the solid state local storage medium issubstantially equivalent to a high capacity SD card (>4 GB) in order toenable for multi-day (>2 days) local storage of movement monitoring dataat high frequencies sampling frequencies (>20 Hz). In one embodiment,the communication module is designed to communicate with a plurality ofwearable movement monitors (peer-to-peer communication) in order tosynchronize the monitors, and to communicate with a host computer(peer-to-host communication) to transmit sensor data, uses abidirectional groundplane, PCB, patch antenna, and accepts transmissionsfrom a plurality of beacons to calculate the device location. In oneembodiment, the power and docking module includes an external connectorto access external power and provide high speed communication with anexternal docking station, the energy charging regulator circuit is asolid state integrated circuit charger such as a linear Lithium IonPolymer battery charger IC and said battery is a Lithium Ion Polymerbattery, and Lithium Ion Polymer battery can be selected for aparticular application as a function of its mAHr characteristics (e.g.450 mAHr or 50 mAHr). As mentioned in the background, according to oneembodiment the wearable apparatus is a wrist-worn device. In aparticular embodiment, it can be a watch including kinematics sensorscapable of quantifying human movement.

According to another embodiment, the wearable movement monitoringapparatus 100 further comprises an external movement monitoring systemcomprising: (a) an external docking station for re-charging the wearablemovement monitoring apparatus, storing movement data, and transmittingthe movement data to a plurality of receiver devices, (b) a plurality ofwireless transceiver access points for wireless transmission of themovement data to a plurality of receiver devices, and (c) a web-enabledserver computer including a data management and analysis system forstoring, sharing, analyzing, and visualizing movement data using aplurality of statistical signal processing methods.

According to a preferred embodiment the movement monitor apparatus 100is a lightweight, low-power, low noise, wireless wearable device withthe following characteristics: 1) weight of 22 g, 2) sampling frequencyof 128 Hz, 3) wireless synchronization, 4) 14 bit resolution, 5)three-axis MEMS accelerometers (user configurable from ±2 g to ±6 g), 6)three-axis MEMS gyroscopes with a ±1500 deg/s range, 7) three-axismagnetometers with a ±6 Gauss range, 7) automatically calibrated, 8)over 16 hours of operation per charge, and 9) over 20 days of onboardstorage capacity. According to a preferred embodiment the device 100includes solid state, low-power, low-noise sensors as follows:accelerometer (0.001 m/s²/sqr(Hz)), XY gyroscope (p0.01 deg/s/sqrt(Hz)),z Gyroscope (0.1 deg/s/sqrt(Hz)), and magnetometer (170 nT/sqrt(Hz)).

According to one embodiment, the wearable devices or apparatus 100 arecompact movement monitoring devices that continuously record data fromembedded sensors. The sensors 100 may be worn at any convenient locationon the body that can monitor impaired movement. Convenient locationsinclude the wrists, ankles, trunk, and waist. In one to one embodiment,the sensors include one or more channels of electromyography,accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, and other MEMS sensors thatcan be used to monitor movement. The wearable sensors 100 havesufficient memory and battery life to continuously record inertial datathroughout the day from the moment subjects wake up until they go tosleep at night, typically 18 hours or more. In one particular embodimentdesigned for continuous monitoring of movement during daily activitiesthe device uses a storage element substantially equivalent to an SD cardto store movement data for extended periods of time (e.g. 1 month). Thesensors 100 automatically start recording when they are removed from thedocking station. In one embodiment, there is no need for the user toturn them on or off.

According to one embodiment, the wearable devices 100 include thecomponents and interconnections detailed in FIG. 2: a sensor module 200,a microprocessor module 210, a data storage module 221, a wirelesscommunication module 230, and a power and docking module 243. Anembodiment of each of these modules comprising the apparatus forcontinuous and objective monitoring of human movement is described indetail below. In addition to movement monitoring in clinicalapplications such as movement disorders, the embodiments disclosed canbe use to characterize movement in a plurality of application areasincluding continuous movement monitoring, activity monitoring,biomechanics, sports science, motion research, human movement analysis,orientation tracking, animation, virtual reality, ergonomics, andinertial guidance for navigation, robots and unmanned vehicles.

B.1. Sensor Module

The sensor module 200 in FIG. 2 contains the motion sensors necessary tocharacterize the symptoms of human movement. Three of these sensors arelow noise accelerometers 202. According to one embodiment, theaccelerometers are off-the-shelf, commercially availableMicro-ElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) acceleration sensors in smallsurface-mount packages, such as the STMicro LIS344AHL. In otherembodiments, the acceleration sensors are custom made MEMSaccelerometers. The accelerometers are arranged in three orthogonal axeseither on a single multi-axis device, or by using one or more separatesensors in different mounting configurations. According to oneembodiment, the output of the accelerometers 202 is an analog signal.This analog signal needs to be filtered to remove high frequencycomponents by anti-aliasing filters 206, and then sampled by theanalog-to-digital (ADC) peripheral inputs of the microprocessor 212.According to one embodiment the anti-aliasing filters are single pole RClow-pass filters that require a high sampling frequency; in another,they are operational amplifiers with multiple-pole low pass filters thatmay use a slower sampling frequency. In other embodiments, the deviceincludes an analog interface circuit (AIC) with a programmableanti-aliasing filter. According to another embodiment, the output of theaccelerometers is digital, in which case the sensor must be configuredfor the correct gain and bandwidth and sampled at the appropriate rateto by the microprocessor 212.

The next three sensors in the sensor module 200 are solid state, lownoise rate gyroscopes 203. In one embodiment, the accelerometers areoff-the-shelf, commercially available Micro-ElectroMechanical Systems(MEMS) rotational sensors in small surface-mount packages, such as a theInvensense IDG-650 and the Epson Toyocomm XV-3500CBY. In otherembodiments are custom made MEMS. The gyroscopes are arranged in threeorthogonal axes either on a single multi-axis device, or by using one ormore separate sensors in different mounting configurations. According toone embodiment, the output of the gyroscopes 203 is an analog signal.This analog signal needs to be filtered to remove high frequencycomponents by anti-aliasing filters 207, and then sample by theanalog-to-digital (ADC) peripheral inputs of the microprocessor 212.According to one embodiment the anti-aliasing filters are single pole RClow-pass filters that require a high sampling frequency; in another,they are operational amplifiers with multiple-pole low pass filters thatmay use a slower sampling frequency. In other embodiments, the deviceincludes an analog interface circuit (AIC) with a programmableanti-aliasing filter. According to another embodiment, the output of thegyroscopes is digital, in which case the sensor must be configured forthe correct gain and bandwidth and sampled at the appropriate rate to bythe microprocessor 212.

The sensor module 200 also contains one ore more aiding sensors.According to one embodiment, an aiding system is a three axismagnetometer 201. By sensing the local magnetic field, the magnetometeris able to record the device's two axes of absolute attitude relative tothe local magnetic field which can aid correcting drift in otherinertial sensors such as the gyroscopes 203. In one embodiment, themagnetometer sensors are off-the-shelf, low noise, solid-state, GMRmagnetometer in small surface-mount packages such as the HoneywellHMC1043. In other embodiments are custom made MEMS. The magnetometersare arranged in three orthogonal axes either on a single multi-axisdevice, or by using one or more separate sensors in different mountingconfigurations. According to one embodiment, the output of eachmagnetometer 203 is an analog signal from two GMR magnetometers arrangedin a Wheatstone bridge configuration, which requires a differentialoperational amplifier 204 to amplify the signal and an anti-aliasingfilter 207 to remove high frequency components. These amplified,anti-aliased filters are then sampled by the analog-to-digital (ADC)peripheral inputs of the microprocessor 212. According to one embodimentthe anti-aliasing filters are single pole RC low-pass filters thatrequire a high sampling frequency; in another, they are operationalamplifiers with multiple-pole low pass filters that may have a slowersampling frequency. In other embodiments, the device includes an analoginterface circuit (AIC) with a programmable anti-aliasing filter.According to another embodiment, the output of the magnetometer isdigital, in which case the sensor must be configured for the correctgain and bandwidth and sampled at the appropriate rate to by themicroprocessor 212. Unlike conventional MEMS inertial sensors,magnetometer sensors may need considerable support circuitry 208, whichin one embodiment include such functions as temperature compensation ofthe Wheatstone bridge through controlling the bridge current, and lowfrequency magnetic domain toggling to identify offsets through the useof pulsed set/reset coils.

Although not specifically depicted in the sensor module 200, otheraiding sensors could be added. In one embodiment, a Global PositioningSystem Satellite Receiver is added in order to give absolute geodeticposition of the device. In another embodiment, a barometric altimeter isadded to give an absolute indication of the vertical altitude of thedevice. In another embodiment, beacons consisting of devices using thesame wireless transceiver 231 could also tag specific locations byrecording the ID of the beacon.

B.2. Microprocessor Module

The microprocessor module 210 in FIG. 2 is responsible for devicecontrol, device status, as well as local data and communicationprocessing. The microprocessor 212 may indicate the device's status onsome kind of visual or auditory display 211 on the device. In oneembodiment, the display is a red-green-blue (RGB) light emitting diode(LED). In another embodiment, a small LCD panel is used to displayinformation, such as the time of day, system status such as batterycharge level and data storage level, and a medication reminder forsubjects who require medication for to treat their movement disorder. Inanother embodiment, the medication reminder is a gentle vibration,auditory, or visual cue that reminds subjects to take any necessaryaction, treatment or perform symptom measurement tasks.

According to one embodiment, the microprocessor 212 is a low powermicrocontroller such as the Texas Instruments MSP430FG4618. Themicroprocessor coordinates the sampling of sensors, data processing,data storage, communications, and synchronization across multipledevices. The microprocessor should be a lower power device with enoughcomputational resources (e.g. 20 MIPS) and input/output resources (morethan 20 general purpose input/output lines, 12 analog-to-digitalconverter inputs, more than two serial communication ports, etc) tointerface to other modules.

The microprocessor is clocked by a low drift time base 213 in order toaccurately maintain both a real time clock (RTC) and to minimize driftin the synchronous sampling across multiple devices on one subject overlong periods of time. In one embodiment, the low drift time base is atemperature compensated crystal oscillator (CTXO) such as the EpsonTG3530SA. In another embodiment, the time base is a standardmicroprocessor crystal with custom temperature compensation using thedigital-to-analog converter of the microprocessor 212. Using a CTXOinstead of a standard microprocessor crystal also minimizes powerconsumed by the wireless communication module 230 since the frequencynecessary to re-synchronize devices is reduced.

B.3. Data Storage Module

The data storage module 221 stores the measurements from the sensors 200and status of the device (such as the energy storage device's 245 chargelevel) locally on the device. It is especially designed to supportstudies involving multi-day continuous movement monitoring. In oneembodiment, the device is capable of storing movement data at a samplingfrequency of 128 Hz for over 20 days. In one embodiment, the localstorage is Flash memory soldered to the device's printed circuit board.In another embodiment, a high capacity Flash card, such as a >4 GBMicroSD card, is used with a high speed synchronous serial port (SPI)from the microprocessor 212 to minimize wire complexity and to enable astandard protocol to hand off to a host computer as necessary. Inanother embodiment, the data storage module is greatly reduced, or evenunnecessary, because data is streamed directly off the device using thewireless communication module 230.

B.4. Wireless Communication Module

The wireless communication module 230 allows the device to communicateto other devices (peer-to-peer), to a host computer (peer-to-host) andto listen to other data such as wireless beacons. The wirelesscommunication module serves multiple functions: it broadcasts data fromthe device's inertial sensors 200 to a computer or other recordingdevice, it synchronizes sampling rate across multiple devices through asampling time synchronization protocol, and allows for configuring thedevices behavior (i.e. mode of operation). Another use for the wirelesscommunication module is to listen for transmissions from beacons whichinforms the device about its current location (e.g. bathroom, kitchen,car, workplace, etc). In one embodiment, the communication protocol is aindustry standard protocol such as Bluetooth, ZigBEE, WiFi orsubstantially equivalent protocol. In another embodiment, it is a customcommunication protocol based on a physical layer transceiver chip.

One embodiment of the wireless communication module consists of a lowpower, 2.4 GHz surface mount wireless transceiver 231, such as theNordic Semiconductor nRF24L01+. The wireless transceiver uses a smallon-board antenna 232, such as a chip antenna like the gigaNOVA Micaantenna for both transmitting and receiving wireless communications. Inanother embodiment, the antenna is a groundplane, PCB, or patch antenna.In one embodiment, the wireless transceiver 231 uses a high speedsynchronous serial port, such as the serial peripheral interface (SPI),to communicate with the host microprocessor 212. In another embodiment,the wireless transceiver is built into the microprocessor as aperipheral. In another embodiment, the wireless transceiver uses skinconduction to create a Personal Area Network (PAN) instead of abroadcast radio. Another embodiment uses light, such as infrared light,as a wireless communication system like the industry standard IRDA. Inthis last embodiment, the antenna 232 would be an optical transceiver.

B.5. Power and Docking Module

According to one embodiment, and without limitation, the power anddocking module 240 provides external power, power regulation, andexternal data connections to the device. One aspect of the power anddocking module is the docking connector 242 which provides an externalconnector to access external power and provide high speed communicationwith the docking station, and thus to a computer or other recordingdevice. One embodiment of the connector 242 is the Hirose ST60 seriesconnector which provides enough connections for both power and completehand off of the data storage module 220 for extremely high throughputdownloading of data. In another embodiment, the docking connector iscompletely wireless, and provides inductive wireless power transmissionfor external power and a local high speed wireless data channel.

Most energy storage devices much be carefully charged, so the energystorage charging regulator 244 must carefully charge the energy storagedevice 245. In one embodiment, the energy storage charger is a linearLithium Ion Polymer battery charger IC such as the Microchip MCP73833,or substantially equivalent integrated circuit. In another embodiment,it is a switching battery charge IC. In another embodiment, themicroprocessor 212 measures the battery capacity and controls the energystorage device's charge directly.

The energy storage mechanism 245 is in one embodiment a Lithium IonPolymer battery. Other embodiments involve other energy storagemechanism, such as super capacitors or other battery chemistries. TheLithium ion polymer battery should be sized appropriately to be as smallas possible for the comfort of the subject wearing the device, yet stillcontain enough stored energy to power the system for a sufficiently longperiod of time. In one embodiment, a 450 mAHr battery is used to enablethe device to last 24 hours and thus be usable for a full day beforerecharging is required. In another embodiment, a smaller 50 mAHr batteryis used to minimize the device size for short term clinical use.

A power regulator 243 must be used to regulate the power coming from theenergy storage device. According to one embodiment, a simple voltageregulator such as the Texas Instruments TPS79901 or equivalent, preparesthe energy storage device's power for use by the other modules(200,210,210,220,230).

Device operation can be extended or performance improved by harvestingenergy from the local environment. One embodiment of an energyharvesting device 241 is a small solar panel on the outside of thedevice. Another is a small kinetic generator using piezoelectricmaterials to generate voltage. A third uses heat differences between thesubject's skin and the ambient air temperature.

B.6. External Docking Station

According to one embodiment, in order to facilitate use in the clinic,home, or other normal daily environments, the device includes a dockingstation 102 that is used to charge the batteries of the wearable devices100 and download the data from each day of activities. The dockingstation 102 uploads the data using whatever means is available in thatsetting. If highspeed Internet access is available within the home, thismay be used for data upload. Alternatively it permits the user todownload the data to a portable storage device such as a USB thumb driveor hard drive that can then be transported to a site for final upload tothe data server. If there is no simple means to download the data fromthe docking station 102, the data is downloaded once the docking stationis returned at the end of the monitoring period. The docking station 102requires no user intervention. The devices 100 stop recording as soon asthey are docked and start recording as soon as they are undocked.According to one embodiment, the docking station 102 does not includeany buttons. The docking station 102 can be connected to a computer fordata extraction and processing.

B.7. Data Management and Processing Module

Once the data is uploaded to the server 104 including a clinical datamanagement tool, the server 104 runs automatic statistical signalprocessing methods 106 to analyze the data and compute the resultsneeded for the application. According to one embodiment, the systemprovides data for three applications: 1) human movement research, 2)movement disorders studies and clinical trials, and 3) clinical care.The system provides a simple means for researchers to conduct studies inhuman movement with wearable sensors 100. Study participants have aneasy means of handling the devices by simply docking them when not inuse. Researchers have easy, secure, and protected access to their rawsensor data through the server 104. The system also provides fullsupport for research studies and clinical trials in movement disorderssuch as Parkinson's disease and essential tremor. It permits researchersto easily upload other types of data such as clinical rating scalescores, participant information, and other types of device dataintegrated into a secure database, and provides a means for sharing thedata. Different views and controlled access permit study coordinators,research sponsors, statisticians, algorithm developers, andinvestigators to easily monitor the progress of studies and results. Thesystem also provides the ability to do sequential analysis forcontinuous monitoring of clinical studies. According to one embodiment,the system has strict, secure, and encrypted access to any protectedhealth information that is stored in the server. The system alsosupports clinical monitoring of individual patients to determine theirresponse to therapy. This is especially helpful for movement disorderssuch as advanced Parkinson's in which the degree of motor impairmentfluctuates continuously throughout the day, as well as any otherapplications. As with clinical studies and trials, the server providessecure, encrypted access to patient records for authenticated careproviders as well as patients themselves.

According to one embodiment, the algorithms 106 process the raw devicedata and extract the metrics of interest. These algorithms areinsensitive to normal voluntary activities, but provide sensitivemeasures of the motor impairments of interest. In Parkinson's diseasethis may include tremor, gait, balance, dyskinesia, bradykinesia,rigidity, and overall motor state.

While particular embodiments and example results have been described, itis understood that, after learning the teachings contained in thisdisclosure, modifications and generalizations will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the disclosedembodiments.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A wearable apparatus, comprising: (a) asensor module comprising a kinematics sensor; (b) a processor configuredfor device control and device status; (c) a data storage modulecomprising a solid state local storage medium, said data storage moduleconfigured for sampling and storing said kinematics data at frequenciesof 20 or more samples per second; (d) a wireless communication modulecomprising a transceiver wherein said wireless communication module isconfigured for synchronizing sampling time instances of said kinematicssensor with signals from a second apparatus; and (e) a power modulecomprising an energy charging regulator.
 2. The wearable apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein said wearable apparatus is a wrist-worn device with aform factor of a watch or a wristband.
 3. The wearable apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein said apparatus further comprises a display configuredfor providing information to a user including a time of day and areminder.
 4. The wearable apparatus of claim 2, wherein said wearableapparatus is a watch.
 5. The wearable apparatus of claim 4, wherein saidwatch is configured for quantifying human movement based on dataacquired by said kinematics sensor.
 6. The wearable apparatus of claim5, wherein said watch is further configured to transmit said kinematicsensor's data to a second apparatus.
 7. The wearable apparatus of claim6, wherein said kinematic sensor is an accelerometer, a gyroscope, amagnetometer, or combinations thereof.
 8. The wearable apparatus ofclaim 4, wherein said watch is configured for wirelessly synchronizingthe sample time instances of said kinematics sensor with a secondapparatus including a kinematics sensor.
 9. The wearable apparatus ofclaim 4, wherein said watch's device status includes an action reminderchosen from the group consisting of a gentle vibration, an auditory cue,and a visual cue.
 10. The wearable apparatus of claim 4, wherein saidwatch is configured for calculating the device location by acceptingtransmissions from one or more external devices, beacons, GPS, orcombinations thereof.
 11. The wearable apparatus of claim 4, whereinsaid watch is charged by inductive power charging.
 12. The wearableapparatus of claim 4, wherein said watch is configured for harvestingenergy from the local environment by using a kinetic generator or asolar panel.
 13. The wearable apparatus of claim 4, wherein said watchis configured for wirelessly communicating with a second device.
 14. Thewearable apparatus of claim 1, wherein said apparatus further comprisesa GPS receiver.
 15. The wearable apparatus of claim 1, wherein saidapparatus further comprises a barometric altimeter.
 16. The wearableapparatus of claim 1, wherein said apparatus is configured forquantifying human movement in continuous ambulatory settings.
 17. Thewearable apparatus of claim 1, wherein said apparatus is configured foractivity monitoring and recognition.
 18. The wearable apparatus of claim1, wherein said apparatus is configured for sport activity optimization.19. The wearable apparatus of claim 1, wherein said apparatus isconfigured for orientation tracking of human, robots, or unmannedvehicles.
 20. The wearable apparatus of claim 1, wherein said apparatusis configured for animation or virtual reality.